1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spiral fluted wheel, and more particularly to a spiral fluted wheel for a water pump and that can be produced rapidly and precisely.
2. Description of Related Art
With reference to FIG. 3, a spiral fluted wheel for a water pump in accordance with the prior art comprises a top plate (40), a bottom plate (41), and multiple spiral impellers (42). The top plate (40) is a disc and has a lock hole (not numbered) defined in the center of the top plate (40). The lock hole is adapted to be securely attached on an axle of the water pump to make the spiral fluted wheel rotate with the axle. The bottom plate (41) is also a disc and has an inlet aperture (not numbered) defined in the center of the bottom plate (41). The inlet aperture has a larger diameter than a diameter of the axle to define a gap between the inlet aperture of the bottom plate (41) and the axle for water entering into the spiral fluted wheel.
The multiple spiral impellers (42) are sandwiched between the top plate (40) and the bottom plate (41) and define a plurality of channels between the top plate (40) and the bottom plate (41). Each spiral impeller (42) is partially spiral-shaped and a spiral channel is defined in a middle portion of the spiral impeller (42). The spiral impeller (42) has a flat bottom (43) and two opposite thin side-walls (not numbered) erected on the flat bottom (43) to construct and surround the spiral channel. Each side-wall has a wedge (44) extending laterally and outwardly from a top of the side wall. In practice, the flat bottom (43) is welded to the upper face of the bottom plate (41) and the wedges (44) are welded to the lower face of the top plate (40) to form a sandwich layer between the top plate (40) and the bottom plate (41).
However, because the spiral impellers (42) are not combined with each other, welding the thin and fiddly spiral impellers (42) one by one to the top plate (40) and the bottom plate (41) is troublesome and time-wasting. In addition, the combination of the spiral impellers is not precise because the spiral impellers abut with each other but do not combine with the other.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide a spiral fluted wheel to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main objective of the invention is to provide a spiral fluted wheel for a pump that can be combined rapidly and precisely. The spiral fluted wheel has a top plate, a bottom plate and multiple spiral impellers. The spiral impellers are sandwiched between the top plate and the bottom plate to combine the top plate and the bottom plate together. Each spiral impeller has two wedges to complementarily engage with another wedge of an adjacent spiral impeller. At least one male engaging element is formed on one wedge of each spiral impeller, and a female engaging portion is defined in the other wedge to engage with each respective male engaging element on the adjacent spiral impeller. With the arrangements of the male engaging elements and the female engaging portions, the spiral fluted wheel can be combined rapidly and precisely.